- published: 25 Mar 2012
- views: 864
Biagio Anthony Gazzarra (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012), known as Ben Gazzara, was an American film, stage, and Emmy Award winning television actor and director.
Gazzara was born in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina (née Cusumano) and Antonio Gazzarra, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up in New York's Kips Bay neighborhood; he lived on East 29th Street and participated in the drama program at Madison Square Boys and Girls Club located across the street. He attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School; but finally graduated from Saint Simon Stock in the Bronx. Years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teen years. He went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering. After two years, he relented. He took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and afterward joined the Actors Studio.
In 1954, Gazzara (having tweaked his original surname from "Gazzarra") made several appearances on NBC's legal drama Justice, based on case studies from the Legal Aid Society of New York. Gazzara starred in various Broadway productions around this time, including creating the role of Brick in Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1955) opposite Barbara BelGeddes, directed by Elia Kazan, although he lost out to Paul Newman when the film version was cast. He joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film The Strange One. Then came a high-profile performance as a soldier on trial for avenging his wife's rape in Otto Preminger's courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Actors: Craig Fairbrass (actor), James Callis (actor), Vadim Jean (actor), Robert Portal (actor), Ruth Vitale (producer), Craig Henderson (actor), Anya Lahiri (actress), Tom Cole (editor), Stefan Booth (actor), Guy Flanagan (actor), Steve Hart (actor), Edith Bukovics (actress), Sue Calverley (producer), Victoria Aitken (actress), Howard Webster (producer),
Plot: It is not a wonderful life for Pursuit Delange. He is having the worst Christmas time ever. He's broke and he's just been fired from his job for an incident with his boss's PA, his bum and a reshaped brand new MacBook. He's somehow managed to fall in love at first site with a girl he's just met at a bar; the only problem is that she now mistakenly believes he's a pervert due to a misunderstanding with an irate Scotsman and a mix up over mobile phones. Back home Pursuit's care in the community, flat mate, Jonty, is trying to raise money for Christmas presents by washing and reselling used condoms and has become a drugs mule. After a failed attempt to claim dole Pursuit believes his luck has finally has run out. That's when he bumps into Charles 'Itchy' Forrester, a sociopath and childhood friend with the reputation as the most evil boy at school, who offers him the chance of a job and a way out of poverty. Yet, unbeknown to Pursuit the offer is Faustian - and he will be faced with very British Sophie's choice. He can turn down the job offer, face bankruptcy, potential eviction and be completely buggered - or he can accept the job and be buggered, quite literally.
Genres: Comedy, Short,